Nate leaned back in his chair, lamenting the lack of cushions. When they returned to the Capital, he thought idly that perhaps he should see about hiring an assistant. Someone to do errands for him. Most of those errands would be about procuring more of the creature comforts he was coming to adore.

  Kiri had vanished after seeing what they had stolen, calling it ‘boring’ and telling Nate to do whatever he wanted with their plunder. He could see why, given what they had taken. Leaning forward, he reviewed his list of their stolen goods.

  Laid out on the floor before him were twenty crates and eight storage devices. He wasn’t exactly sure how much of the Asmuisil supplies they had stolen, but he estimated it was somewhere between a tenth and a fifth of their opponents’ total supplies. He was, of course, excluding personal supplies carried by the individuals of the Asmuisillan Army. His estimates were based on the contents of the crates.

  In the crates he had enough Uncommon-tier sets of armour to outfit five hundred soldiers. That included short swords and small buckler shields. Of the storage devices, three contained rations and food supplies; two contained tents and other camping supplies, such as buckets, ropes and similar paraphernalia; two contained mana gems — which totalled more mana than he had stolen from the Capital in over six months. Of those, he intended to give one to the Princess to cover her losses from the raid by Asmuisil. The final storage device was the real prize, however: the enchanted equipment that Asmuisil made such effective use of. Two sets of Champion Armour, as he was calling the enchanted armour that could be connected to an Empowerment Enchantment, was the trophy he had sought. Alongside the armour were over a hundred barrier bracers. Only ten were clearly his own work, the rest slightly inferior copies, but still useful. His lips twisted a little in self-reflection and he had to acknowledge for a moment that not everyone had his talent or Skills and that just because others couldn’t achieve the same outcomes as him didn’t make their work faulty, just…not as good.

  He had half-expected to find enchanted items for simplifying work. Enchanted lamps, fire-starters, heaters, water-condensers and any number of other enchanted items to make camp-life easier. He found none of those, which made him wonder about the rugged approach of the Asmuisillan Army. Unless the other supply depots had different equipment — an unlikely possibility — it seemed like their opponents only used mana where they had to and instead relied on mundane methods for everything else. Such an approach was in stark contrast with the Etruans. Perhaps the conscripts made do with the mundane, but the Nobility most certainly did not.

  Out of the two approaches, he had to admit, he preferred Asmuisil’s. He could recognise that his position made him somewhat of a hypocrite, considering his preference for comforts and his abuse of the mana stockpile he was taking from Etrua. He wasn’t some Robin Hood character, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. The mana he took went towards his own development, The Artist’s Emporium, and helping his friends. Looking inside himself, he wasn’t sure how that made him feel. Up until now he had considered himself better than the Etruan Nobility, but in retrospect, he was just nicer. He had given the poor some art to appreciate, added a little beauty to their lives, but little else. Perhaps, he decided, it was time that changed.

  For the past few days, Conceptual Insight had reached a point where it had stored enough mana to forcibly upgrade the tier of one of his Master-tier Sigils. He had three options that he had been seriously considering. Barrier had been the front-runner. Taking his Legendary Bracer to Mythic seemed like the obvious choice to secure his defences. The second option had been his Life Sigil. He had raised it to the Master tier when he saved Britt and taking it to the Grandmaster tier could go a long way towards helping him unlock the Lord of Life Class, or at least something similar to it. His third and final option was his Mana Sigil. Being able to control mana more effectively, be it for gathering mana or dispersing it, had implications for all his crafting and for combat.

  Before tonight, before seeing the stark differences between Asmuisil and Etrua, and before his moment of introspection, he knew he would have chosen Barrier, a reaction rooted in his fear and paranoia. But seeing the differences between the two countries made him see that he wanted to use his talents to help others, the non-nobility in particular. That and, as always, to create art. Just handing out the mana he had stolen from Asmuisil wouldn’t do much for them, even in the short-term. But what he could do was increase their chances of survival. Many had minor injuries that weren’t tended to in the Healer tents. He had already considered going among the conscripts, hidden, and providing what care he could. Now, with their stolen plunder, he had more than enough to go beyond such a small action.

  His decision made, and ignoring the knowing look he could sense from Frick who was working hard within his Runic Gallery, he activated Conceptual Insight. He held the Skill ready, using Conceptual Runic Mastery to copy the Life Sigil from his robe into the air in front of him. Taking a moment, he made sure that the wards on his tent held and that he wasn’t being spied on. Satisfied he was alone, except for Frick, he let the secondary effect of Conceptual Insight drain away into the Life Sigil that hung before him. Similar to the first time, the Sigil drank up the mana, beginning to shift. The Concept of Life had myriad interpretations. At the Master tier it had already been a complex shape that looked somewhat like a flower or perhaps a tree. He had always assumed that it was meant to represent evolution, or perhaps growth and change. The new form it took on looked nothing like that. Instead, it reminded him loosely of a spider's web. Loosely, because where a spider's web was orderly, with sections working inwards, the connections in the Grandmaster-tier Life Sigil were erratic and chaotic in nature. Along those strands were various symbols and while his Divine Translation didn’t activate, he got a sense from Conceptual Insight that they were the subconcepts most closely aligned with the Concept of Life.

  He took out his notebook and began copying down his second Grandmaster-tier Sigil. After sketching it twice he used his own sketch with Conceptual Runic Mastery to recreate the Sigil until he was satisfied he had it perfect. Around him, life reacted to the presence of the twin Sigils. He could feel his own body and the mana within fighting against the outside force, but the grass beneath his feet had no such protections. Parts of it grew, crawling up his legs, while other parts changed colours, or grew denser and sharper. A small portion of it turned to goo before dying. Life, unguided, was as capable of destruction as death. Releasing his own Life Sigil, he watched as the mana within Conceptual Insight finally ran out and the second Life Sigil vanished.

  Unlike with his Grandmaster-tier Space Sigil, there had been no reaction from the Divine Translation Spell placed on him by Arikanvil. More evidence that the Divine lacked the knowledge of higher-tier Sigils that did not relate to the Concept of Space.

  With the first part of his nightly plan completed, he began modifying his Life-Soul runic array to accommodate the new Sigil. As he had just seen, Life unguided could be damaging and what he wanted to accomplish was on a large enough scale that he would need to consider both targeting and guidance. Targeting, because he didn’t want to grow a field of mutated grass filled with monstrous bugs. Guidance because he didn’t want the life energies to mutate the people he intended to be the recipients of his rune.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Working through the remainder of the night he finally finished about an hour before dawn. His latest creation might have taken longer if he didn’t already have a scaffold to work off of in the form of his Life-Soul runic array. The new runic array was huge — the biggest he had ever created. The increased size was a requirement to fit all the Sigils he wanted onto it with enough separation to make sure that the amount of mana that dispersed to them met his requirements. When created, he expected it to stretch to over three metres in diameter. Smaller, and he would be forced to limit the amount of mana that would flow through the rune, lest the mana dispersion fields start overlapping. The issue he had encountered when creating the rune, was one of scale. Up until now most of his runes had been single targets or small areas. The exception, of course, was his workshop, but he could get very detailed when he had such a large surface area to work with. Even then, the area his workshop runes were meant to cover or ward were still far smaller in scale than what he intended to accomplish before the sun rose.

  No notification waited for him yet, but that was because he had only designed the new rune. He hadn’t yet created it. Acknowledgement would come when he turned the idea into reality, and now was the time to do so.

  “Ready?” he mentally sent to Frick.

  “Ready, Boss. You sure about this?”

  The idea of using as much mana as Nate was about to spend on healing the sick and injured was not something that Frick had been ecstatic about. Even with his Familiar’s misgivings, the goblin spirit had been hard at work preparing the area for Nate. Concealing his presence and the mana he was about to unleash was very important. The last thing he needed was more of the Nobility harassing or hounding him. Frick’s set up had been much more straightforward and was carved into the earth, far simpler runes to do two things in sequence: an illusion to hide Nate and an expanding mana obfuscation barrier to prevent any detailed detection of the mana used. Frick had created the runes out of metal raised to the rare tier. It was the best they could manage on short-notice and he suspected that it wouldn’t completely conceal the mana usage. But he could live with that shortcoming.

  With Frick ready, Nate activated Conceptual Spatial Manipulation, appearing within the metallic circle of runes crafted by Frick. A haze surrounded him, that made it seem like he was staring through a thin layer of water at the conscripts’ camp. Small makeshift tents and camp sites stretched in every direction, with thousands of conscripts sleeping. A bare few were already awake, sitting around campfires and roasting their breakfasts. The smells mixed together in Nate’s nostrils. Smoke, dirt and sweat mixed with the sweet smell of vegetables. There was a hint of blood and he suspected what might be decaying flesh.

  “Last chance to back out, Boss,” muttered Frick, sitting in the grass and holding a small pile of mana gems.

  “It’s the right thing to do,” replied Nate.

  “You’re the Boss, and I suppose it is all stolen mana…still kinda’ goblin.”

  Nate smiled as Frick started flowing mana into the Mana Obfuscation runic array laid out around them.

  Looking up, Nate focused as he began recreating the gigantic rune. He had given it a new name. A simpler one that he thought Kiri might approve of. The Mass Restoration rune began to take form above him as he was forced to balance Conceptual Runic Mastery with the required control as he began placing the individual Sigils within the massive geometric form of the rune. Using his Skill, he began subtly shifting Subconcepts as he used the Target Sigil to focus on humans, the Life Sigil to focus on Restoration, the Soul Sigil to focus on Guidance and the Power Sigil to focus on Empowerment. Those were the four key Sigils, but he had included others. Blood, Mana, Shape, Calm, Gentle and Clean were all involved as well. Without his Intent to guide the final creation it likely would have fallen apart. But with fifty-six Intents to work with, he could guide a rune on this scale like a conductor guided an orchestra, and the result was his very own symphony.

  Reaching into his Runic Gallery, he guided mana from the stolen gems, emptying a tenth of them as he bled the mana into his rune. The reaction was instant and Conceptual Insight sang in the back of his mind as the Concept of Life flew forth over the conscripts’ camp, only outpaced by Frick’s expanding mana obfuscation runic array. Using his farsight sphere of awareness, he could tell that the concealment of his mana usage was incomplete. It had been a risk that he was aware of and given the strength of his own rune he had been almost certain that they couldn’t completely hide his actions. But that was fine as long as they couldn’t find him, and the obfuscation around his location was strong enough to prevent his detection.

  Through that same sphere of awareness, he could sense the desired changes happening amongst the camp. Cuts and bruises vanished, infections were purged and blood pumped to restore any losses. There wasn’t enough mana per conscript to restore missing limbs, but superficial wounds and internal damage vanished.

  Ignoring the notification in the corner of his vision, Nate collapsed the gigantic rune and used Conceptual Spatial Manipulation to return to his tent. A moment later, Frick joined him, bringing the runes that he had hidden with him.

  “Was it worth it, Boss?” asked Frick.

  Nate didn’t even look at the notifications before answering, “It was for me, Frick.”

  His Familiar shrugged after a moment before dropping his own bombshell, “I am on the verge of my second evolution.”

  Nate blinked at the blindside, “Do you know what you’ll get?”

  “I’ve got some ideas, Boss, but I wanted to ask you before I chose…are you going to keep me around?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” Nate asked in confusion.

  Frick flopped down on the floor and looked up at Nate, “Because I am like Britt, Boss, or Null, I guess.”

  “Class Tier. You’re worried about keeping up.” Nate replied with a nod, taking a seat in his own chair, more tired than he had expected to be. Apparently guiding enough mana to level a city wall could wear him down a little, at least for now.

  “Class tier,” agreed Frick. “I had a Rare Class, when I agreed to our Contract back in your first Dungeon. My first evolution got me an Epic Class, thanks to you, largely. Benefits of being a Familiar. But the gaps between evolutions get bigger after the Second Evolution. Sixty levels between them, and I am still two tiers below you. You’re strong enough to get a new Familiar. A stronger one, if you wanted. Nine Hells, Boss, between your skillset and Kiri’s you could probably venture to the Spirit Realm after your Second Evolution and find yourself a Familiar. So, I wanted to know, are you going to keep me around?”

  Nate didn’t have to think about the question for long. Would a stronger Familiar be a benefit? It would. But, even if their relationship had its ups and downs, Frick had been with him from the start. If he could find a way to uplift Britt, he could find a way to uplift Frick.

  “I will keep you with me, Frick, till you want me to release you.”

  Frick grinned, sharp teeth flashing in the dim tent as blue eyes met Nate’s grin.

  “Thanks, Boss. I won’t let you down!”

  Frick vanished into the Runic Gallery, diligently returning to work and Nate finally spared some attention for his notifications.

  Congratulations on creating a Mass Restoration Rune (Grandmaster Quality).

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  Congratulations on Healing more than one-thousand sapients with a single action.

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  Two more achievements and both focused on healing and life. As far as he was concerned, he was well on his way to accomplishing his goals of a Life-aspected Tertiary Class. Now, he just needed to go see a Princess and deliver some mana along with news of their success. That, and deal with the other waiting notifications. It had been a busy night and he had grown by more than just a few achievements.

  Discord Channel

  Patreon with up to 20 chapters ahead of RoyalRoad.